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In 2012, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended that the National Immunisation Programme for influenza be extended to include healthy children/adolescents aged 2–17 years. In the UK, extension of this new immunisation programme began in 2013/2014 and targeted children aged 2 years and 3 years in primary care. Several implementation pilots were undertaken in primary schools across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as a single pilot in a secondary school in England. This article shares lessons learnt from experiences in England and Scotland to provide guidance for other countries considering addition of childhood influenza vaccination into their national immunisation programmes.

Recommendations are provided to help ensure effective preparation and management of new childhood influenza vaccination programmes in other countries. This article describes the processes utilised in England and Scotland for programme setup, workforce management, identification and care of contraindicated patients, collection of data on vaccine uptake, communication strategies, and education of parents and children.

Keywords: influenza, vaccine, vaccination, children, schools, pilot project, England, Scotland.

Abbreviations: GP, general practitioner; JCVI, Joint Committee on Vaccination and  Immunisation; LAIV, live attenuated influenza vaccine; NIP, national immunisation programme; NHS, National Health Service; PGD, Patient Group Direction; PSD, Patient Specific Direction; TIV, trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine.

Citation
Kassianos G, White S, Reynolds AJ, Rajaram S. Review of the experiences from the first childhood influenza vaccination programme with a live attenuated influenza vaccine in England and Scotland. Drugs in Context 2015; 4: 212280. DOI: 10.7573/dic.212280

Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Kassianos G, White S, Reynolds AJ, Rajaram S. Distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License Deed CC BY NC ND 3.0 which allows anyone to copy, distribute, and transmit the article provided it is properly attributed in the manner specified below. No commercial use without permission.

Correct attribution
Copyright © 2015 Kassianos G, White S, Reynolds AJ, Rajaram S. http://dx.doi.org/10.7573/dic.212280. Published by Drugs in Context under Creative Commons License Deed CC BY NC ND 3.0.

Article URL
https://www.drugsincontext.com/review-experiences-first-childhood-influenza-vaccination-programme-live-attenuated-influenza-vaccine-england-scotland

Correspondence
George Kassianos, FRCGP, FBHS, FESC, FBGTHA, FAcadMed, FFTM RCPS Glasg, President, British Global and Travel Health Association and Clinical Immunisation Lead, Royal College of General Practitioners, 61 Plough Lane, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG40 1RQ, UK.
george.kassianos@nhs.net

Provenance
Submitted, externally peer reviewed

Dates
Submitted: 4 March 2015
Accepted, subject to peer review: 5 March 2015
Peer review comments to author: 17 March 2015
Revised manuscript submitted: 16 April 2015
Publication date: 1 May 2015

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